Pro Football Hall of Fame — Attraction in Canton

So we were recently on a vacation in Pittsburgh (from Texas) and decided to make a trip to the Pro Football HOF. I want to say it was about an hour and a half drive from the Burgh. Being that my family all loves football I didn't have to drag anyone here, which is a plus because my wife, son, and daughter was also very excited to go, and wanted to see everything. There is more to see that I had originally thought, and having someone hurry you through it all, would kinda put a damper on the whole experience (just in my opinion.) Pulling up to the building, our first reaction was it looked small, with a nice sized football stadium directly behind it (where they play the HOF game every year, obviously. Except this year, there was no game.) As far as the actual building, I think in our minds we had just built it up, but none the less, it was plenty big and had hours of stuff to go through, movies to watch, and brass heads to see. On the first leg of the tour, is the football trading cards, that rightfully you cannot take pictures of. Some of the cards were from the beginning of football and in nice condition. There's enough cards here, if you looked at every single card and studied them, it would take atleast two hours or so, I would think. Then you move on to a multi-level area filled with amazing artifacts, players actual gear, and more fun facts about players and the game than you can imagine. One of the first items you come across is Jim Thorpe's actual letterman sweater! After this area there's short movies, super bowl rings, walls of brass heads, and much more to check out. At the end of it, we spent about an hour and a half shopping in the HOF store. Here we were told of some possible upgrades coming to the Hall of Fame, like a hotel, restaurants, and possibly a water park or something, I'm not exactly sure but she said it would be worth it to come back in the near future. My biggest disappointment is that you can't go onto the field to take a few pics, but I understand, and it's definitely not enough to lose a star over, although it would be cool to have a big window or outside area facing the stadium were you could see what it looks lik, and take some pics of it. Overall it was a great day, and we all had a blast! Maybe if we lived closer I'd say we would definitely revisit one day. If they do end up building on to it, we may have to make another stop, on a future trip. My best advice would be make sure you eat before you get here, unless they do build a restaurant, you'll spend hours here and the family will get hungry. Like I said in the beginning, they didn't hurry me along, because they wanted to see everything also, but everyone was starving and we would have stayed a little longer if this was not the case. Or maybe have some snacks out in your car in the parking lot? Just a suggestion, either way if you are anywhere in the area, and are thinking of adding this place as a stop on your vacation.......definitely do it, I don't see you being disappointed at all! I'll add some pics, but not near as many as I actually took, so you can get an idea, without me showing all the good stuff! Thanks for reading and stay...

This is truly football heaven. An absolute amazing experience. We had come in for induction week. The place was extremely busy. I had pre-purchased a diamond level membership in February. The negative about buying the membership online is that they will not ship your membership material to you. It has to be picked up in person. This is a big negative if you want to support the hall but can't actually visit. It is not clear when you order this is an issue. After a month and no membership material, I called and was informed of this policy. After pleading my case about distance and it being 6 months before I could possibly visit, the man I spoke to said they would ship it, but never did. On arrival, the biggest negative was the front lot, which appeared to have ample handicap parking, but every space was filled with law enforcement or fire department golf carts. I would estimate 25 or better spaces, all with golf carts. The first day, and visit to the hall, we were able to find handicap parking in a lot behind the building, which was not terribly far away, but due to the grade coming out, it was pretty exhausting in my manual wheelchair. Every staff member we encountered was beyond courteous. Even though the place was absolutely packed, we only waited about 10 minutes at the ticket line to get to the counter. I showed them my email, they gave us entry bands, and told us to visit the museum but stop back by before shopping to pick up our membership pack (there are discounts as part of the memberships). I asked about how long it would take for everything to be ready. She said 5-10 minutes. We visited the museum and got to see many of the exhibits. I would think on a smaller volume day that it would take a full day to take everything in. There are plenty of historical documents, interactive displays, video displays, and even a theater with a movie about the history of the league. There are tons of uniform pieces and exhibits. I was surprised the busts were not behind glass. After a couple of hours, we went back by the ticket window to pick up our membership pack and tickets to the induction ceremony. We headed to the store and realized only one of the two membership cards was in the bag. Back to tickets to get the missing card. Back off to the gift shop for t-shirts and souvenirs. Like the museum, it was packed, and the staff was amazing. When checking out, we realized they had printed the wrong membership level on the cards, but the store staff made the necessary adjustments. Back to the ticket window one more time to get the cards corrected, then the trek back to the car to end day 1. I deducted one star due to the unfortunate and odd handicap parking issue. Lack of handicap parking was a much bigger issue on induction day, as the parking for the stadium was much worse. Overall, I would give the hall and complex around it 10 stars, if it was an option, as this place is a football fans dream. I am very much looking forward to returning and plan on renewing my...

Team, The Pro Football Hall of Fame is not only an incredible collective of the immortalization of the greatest titans of the NFL but has an employee that works for the people and represents all of the inherent qualities a football guy looks for in a fellow man. A Football Guy’s Guy if you will. It is important to know who I am. I am a Fantasy Football Commissioner. A steward of all things Fantasy and a man of my owners. This year we awarded a trophy to the worst of us. A relegated New England Patriots fan who like his IRL team has lost touched with talent evaluation. So much so that in reward for being so bad at this “make believe” sport. He is awarded not only this beautiful trophy but the #1 pick in the 2026 Fantasy Draft. Now like all Fantasy Managers I find it very important to complete assigned and implied tasks swiftly. So as not to forget and lose confidence amongst the managers. Although they will never appreciate my professionalism and sincerity in the execution of this position. They will appreciate me one day when they don’t have me. So I asked this manager for his address where I could ship the trophy and he sent me the address to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Not identifying that this Chicagoan is no where near Canton, OH is a lapse on me, but I would like to blame my California Public Schooling for my complete disassociation-of what the Northeast is and where these states actually are. For example I just learned this last summer that Washington DC, NYC, Philly, and Pittsburgh are within the same radius as a SF to LA to Vegas. Incredible stuff. After ordering this trophy and weeks going by I looked at my Amazon account and saw that the package was delivered but our relegated manager said he had not received the trophy yet and a quick check of google maps showed me that I was…. Way Off! and sent this trophy to the real life pro football HoF and not my friends high rise apartment in Chicago. After conducting some self reflection I realized I needed to figure this out. The men were counting on me. So I cold called the HoF and did my best to efficiently describe the situation I had put myself in. The kind woman forwarded me to a man named “Justin”. Justin works somewhere in the mailroom department and is simply put… a Great American. Justin laughed and had more questions then answers as to how this happened but was very kind and never asked me “Are you an idiot?” Or “Chicago is not near Canton. You know that right?” Justin did a quick charge on my credit card for the new shipping and even took a few requested photos for us of the trophy in Canton (its rightful place. If we are being honest). I would like to publicly acknowledge this great human and thank him for this incredible anecdote that will no doubt increase the esprit de corps and culture of my Fantasy League. Cheers to you Justin!

From the Veterans of “The League” aka...